This is great! I remember back in 1999 all of us at The Animation Academy having this conversation all the time. We would all get riled up. Stephen was there, Jose Lopez, Thomas Perkins, Chance Raspberry, Taso Gionis, who else? Philip Felix, Aaron Horvath...anyways, I'm going down memory lane here...but I'm stoked to see and hear Stephen is still proclaiming the sentiment! Good stuff!

Steve Silver at times in the video literally quotes stuff I've been saying at the Academy years ago when he was there and still to this day I say it. At least there's someone out there in the mainstream animation here in LA that's making a stand.

Ain't gonna see that from the good ol boys and girls at the Animation Guild now are ya?

Good for Mr. Silver! With him on the way on this!

Check it out... His video has gone viral and he has 30,837 views in just 3 days. That's 28,000 more than when I first posted the day before!

What an awesome statement and stand for what is right, Stephen!! First off, thank you for recording and sharing this (and Congrats on the viral response!)

Second, thank you Charles for posting it on AN, bringing it to the forefront of the industry, and sharing/teaching us this mentality from the get-go!!! Snakebite, I haven't forgotten you, brother. ;D Thank you for including me in your recollection of The Animation Academy's Golden Age (I'm still so glad to have been a part of it!)

I have just created a brand new Chance Raspberry Newsletter mailing list, and went back in last night to add this video to its debut issue. I also plan to post a followup to this video in some form (video, podcast, e-article, etc.) in my Feb issue of the newsletter.

If you guys or anyone else would like to see what's in store and keep the ball rolling out to all new subscribers, you can SIGN UP here: http://eepurl.com/ue5xb. Thanks again, brothers! NO MORE FREE WORK!! =D

How can I forget you bro?? you're one of the real ones. Much respect and I remember those days fondly. We all are a force. The alumni from those days are strong..and C is right. Stephen is practically echoing everything we all shared with each other then. Philip Felix was the first to expose me to those ideas and then in 1999 he introduced me to the Warlord!

In regards to Stephen it Makes me happy he still feels this way! Go Stephen go!!

What a time capsule of Glory Days!! I truly wish every artist could experience what we had then and there. I know everyone finds their own version of it...but not always. We are truly blessed and the fact that we got such insight early on is a gift! Thank ALL you guys for sharing that knowledge, strength, and MAGIC with me. That's right, there was magic in those halls...stop working for free or we just might put a spell on you!!! ;F

This video is great. no doubt. But in my world its a conversation thats been around for awhile...This issue goes deeper then not working for free.

There's other mentalities out there that are more damaging then working for free.

Howa bout don't let an organization tell you how much your worth? Howa bout, don't pay for a service that is a monopoly on getting certain jobs in the industry...A service that doesn't believe you can change law in order to enrich the community and evolve policies...

Positivity comes in many forms. Sometimes two planets colliding is love...forming new systems and structures to support life...ok, I'm getting a little abstract...but not really.

We're doomed to repeat ourselves unless we learn..and we won't learn unless we share. Stop believing that pointing out the problems, even passionately, is negative. Thats part of the lie and perpetual abuse. After all I got fucked the most by people with fake smiles.

I wonder if Steve Silver will be blacklisted because of this video. What do you think? Will the studios stop passing work to him? Will they drop him from their roster of artists?

Cartoonbrew and the Animation Guild have both blacklisted AN and we were getting this message out long before Stephen Silver. They happily embrace my student but they think I'm the enemy and hate my guts.

What a friggen industry.

Working for free is a symptom of a deeper problem but I can see that the message is getting through. I can tell from the attitude of students at the Academy this week. Don't work for free has become a mantra that's being taken much more seriously. The freeloading users out there are going to find it much more difficult to bamboozle artists.

If you're gonna work for free do your own project and crowdfund it. When these guys get a budget and can pay you then talk to them. Stop wasting your time and energy and resources on these jokers. Have some self respect and respect for your community.

I get calls and emails all the time from people and groups looking to find student artists to work for free or for credit or for very little compensation.

I noticed that after Stephen's video went out the number of requests drastically dropped. I don't know if it's a coincidence or something that's associated with the don't work for free movement, but when I do get requests for artists I really emphasize that there's no way anyone will work on their project without compensation and I won't forward their requests without compensation associated with it. I was doing this before but I'm even more emphatic about now.

See that ladies and gents!

We can change things if we want to!

We can affect any kind of reform we want if we simply put our minds to it and UNIFY !!!